The Japanese government yesterday provided $3.9 million for food assistance to those displaced by armed violence in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique.

The amount, made available through the World Food Program (WFP), should also serve to respond to food insecurity caused by drought in southern Mozambique, said Kimura Hajime, Japan's ambassador to Mozambique, during the exchange of notes ceremony with WFP in Maputo.

According to the official, of the total, 2.4 million dollars will be used to provide food and humanitarian assistance to more than 36,000 people displaced by armed violence in Cabo Delgado, and the remaining 1.5 million dollars will support about 17,800 vulnerable people in the provinces of Gaza and Inhambane, in the south of the country.

"Japan's ongoing contributions are saving lives, improving food security for the most vulnerable families, and helping to build the resilience of communities to future shocks," said Pierre Lucas, WFP's deputy director in Mozambique, quoted by Lusa.

Cabo Delgado province has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

There are 784,000 internally displaced people due to the conflict, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and about 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.

Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with Rwandan support, later joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has allowed the rebels to recover areas where they had been present, but their flight has provoked new attacks in other districts used as passage or temporary refuge.